Eden Mitchell
In the Brooder
- Mar 27, 2021
- 7
- 49
- 37
My Hens haven't been broody for years, and I was wondering if anyone had some thought about getting them to become broody.
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I didn't know whether to or so here's both...What they said. Different times I've tried adding an egg a day to a nest, both fake eggs and marked sacrificial eggs, until I got a dozen, then left them for a couple of weeks. I once had a hen go broody on a different nest when I did this but I don't think that counts. Using a Kentucky Fried poster in my lecture of why they should go broody didn't help either. That poster has never worked, even when I used it to explain why they should start laying eggs. They just don't listen.
Many chickens, especially production breeds, have had the broodiness bred out of them. When a hen goes broody they are not laying eggs and they disrupt the henhouse. In those cases the hens are often permanently removed from the flock. Their eggs are not hatched to produce the next generation. If you make going broody a fatal condition, in a few generations you have a flock where very few go broody. That's why Sourland asked about your breeds.
Even if you have a breed that does often go broody, some individuals never do. It's not just breed, the individuals are all different too. I've had breeds that are supposed to go broody a lot yet many individuals never did. And I've had breeds where they are not supposed to go broody but some did. I could never get the ones that went broody to go broody on my schedule.
The only way you can control hatching eggs is to get an incubator and use it. Just showing it to them doesn't work, you have to hatch the eggs yourself. They just won't listen.